##VIDEO ID:xnkrU_ddPH0## e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right we're going to start the meeting at 6:03 please stand for the pledge to the flag the United States of America to the Republic for which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all now we got to see my my country dis the board secretary will serve as pending officer appr Pro tempora until such time as a new board president has been elected the conduct of the meeting will be turned over to the board president immediately upon Appo appointment Sunshine Law statement this is to advise the general public and to instruct that it be recorded in the minutes that in compliance with chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 entitled the open public meeting act Stan hope Board of Education located at 24 Valley Road Stan Hope New Jersey has caused this notice to be posted at the office of the stanh Hope Board of Education mailed to the New Jersey Herald the municipal clerk of the Bur of Stan hope the Stan hope post office and posted at the Valley Road school and on the Stan hope school's Public Schools website setting forth the time date and location of the meeting mission statement the Stan Hope School District in partnership with the community commits to provide a quality comprehensive education for all Learners with equal emphasis on academic excellence and citizenship through values respect and service vision statement our vision is to inspire and cultivate a community of innovative curious compassionate and globally minded Learners equipped with knowledge problem solving skills and the ability to persevere to make a positive impact on society and shape a better future as you will see we have the school election results and we have two new board members um Mr ticar who appears to not be available for the meeting this evening and Mrs Bato welcome thank you at this time Mrs Bal would you mind please standing and reciting the oath of office I I balato do solemnly swear or affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of New Jersey and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the governments established in the United States and this state under the authority of the people so help me God I Aver botot do solemnly swear that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of member of a board of education and that I will faithfully impartially and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my abilities so help me God thank you thank you and welcome I will sign off on your information later on and keep that on file for us okay now we'll do a roll call Mrs Harold here Mr car Mr Pico here Mrs botato here Mrs sharpstein here Mr vardo here Mr y here thank you we have a qu at this time I would like to ask if there are any nominations for the president yes yes okay so I have Mr F car would like to make the first nomination MAA I second that okay okay can I have any other nominations okay can and I have a motion may I please use Mr douam and Mrs Harold as my nominations yes okay and we're nominating Sharin as president roll call is Mrs Harold yes Mr Mr Pico yes Mrs botato yes Mr sharpstein yes Mr vardo yes Mr y yes okay welcome aboard M president thanks all right we will move right on to uh election of the vice president of the board can I have a nomination for vice president please I nominate John Harold can I have a second second any other nominations for vice president of the board okay can I have a motion for vice president please motion second second thank you call call vote please sure Mrs Harold yes Mr Pico yes Mrs balado yes Mrs sharpstein yes Mr vardo yes Mr y yes thank you motion carries aard congratulations thank you congratulations thank you very much okay so up next is appointment of delegates and committees that we are going to go through um can I have a motion please to get the process started second okay thank you uh let's see so for New Jersey school boards um a primary and a secondary or co- delegates um I I'm still past president so I will stay on as a delegate uh would anybody else like to be part of that right no no okay unless somebody have question if you want to go ahead I'm just going to ask what does the what does it do it really just means that when there is something like a delegate assembly um you would attend if I can't attend to cast a vote on behalf of our Board of Education if they're voting on anything at the delegate assembly for New Jersey school boards or like some of the events that we host that are open to all members anyway you would also be it could be anywhere in the State anywhere in the state yes I don't want to do that okay that's fair I'd be happy to do it awesome okay ay got it I don't no that's not a problem is it which one myself and Avery Avery okay okay so Sussex ed services none of us have ever actually served I've been in alternate but never had to go because Gil has been president of that board forever like he was president of this board um so um Carmen I know you're somewhat familiar is that something that would interest you in being up there at all it's up to you um I know you had some interaction up there yeah I had a lot of interaction up there it does mean you have to go to Every meeting it's not on it's not on um the tablet is it no no these are these are in person meetings Okay do you'd like to do it okay would anybody like to be an alternate up there okay you can put me as the AL okay that's fine okay so now on to all of our committees for the year um I've put some thought into this based on what people have done before and a few people who have spoken to me um and I'll share my thoughts if you have anything different please let me know um for personnel curriculum School climate and culture Matt I'd actually like to put you on that one as chair if that's okay with you I was hoping to stay on the same Committee of Business Services facilities and yeah I mean the I I have no problem doing it um but yeah if that's what and let me just just clarify a little bit I have two new board members and I have three folks that I need to to chair committees sure as well so that's where I'm trying to fit people who have a little bit of experience in um I mean I tend to understand a little bit more the business services side of things but I'm again happy to jump in and do it if that's what's going to be best for the board I mean I'd appreciate it if you give it a try sure okay thank you and then um Carmen if you would jump on to personnel with Matt sure Personnel in communication and school climate I think will be a good year because we're going to be going through the climate survey this year as well so problem we have the climate survey that'll be coming out working with the community on that I go work well with it's gonna be wonderful all right business services Yak if you could share that yeah and I'll put you with niib okay because he has served on that Committee in the past and then uh Jen chair on policy with Avery and then um for Budget in the past what we've done is we've kept it with the business committee but I'm open to changing that because this is the first year we don't have a conflicted board in the past we've had to keep it small because we've had a conflicted board and too many conflicted members um so I know um you got a taste of budget this year yeah I'd like to keep that going if everyone's okay with that sure sure but if if not at least as a member yeah at a very small and then Matt would you like to join budget sure okay and then we're not in a negotiations year but uh do you want should we to point that in case there's any sidebars or addendums or anything that need to for that reason right if we have to do any kind of administrative negotiations anything like that okay um so then on negotiations um Jen and Avery [Music] okay so all set if I can throw something out there for business facilities yes um I understand we typically keep it to two member minimum um Matt you were on that committee prior correct yeah is it out of the picture to have a an additional person in there so we keep it under a quorum m is our third person right so once we go to four then we have then we have AUM okay all right never mind well and I will share there are boards where the board president is not on every committee can open that up to discussion if that's something we're interested in doing uh it does not have to stay in that structure it's a structure we've always had um but we don't have to keep it that way if one of you would like to serve on that committee additionally if that's something you really want to continue to do um one of the things uh in February I was having school boards come in to talk about this very thing in committees and assignments and how all of this works and roles of board members especially with so many new people and one of the things that they will talk about is having the people with the right skill sets on all the Committees and we're such a small town and a small board we don't have a lot of committees some of these big boards have you know four or five six seven committees at a time so the board president does not sit on all of them um so that does happen do you mind if I just interject uh just from from my experience now I think this is my eighth year in this role um I've always found it useful for not even newer board members but for board members to serve on each committee at least once to kind of get a full grasp of what each committee entails right especially somebody who's who's hopeful and planning to be on the board for an extended period of time um I know that that was always Mr moscatello um way of looking at things I think in mata's first three years you served on each each of those three boards you know and then just kind of you know from there figure out where those those skill sets are so just based on my experience you know I would recommend you know anybody who hasn't been on the board for more than two or three years just to get a feel um um we also and this is something we did several years ago um have opened up agenda committees um agend the committee agendas so that everybody can view them before so even if you're not attending that actual committee you know what's on the agenda right so if you have a concern a question or something that you want to bring to the table to discuss you can bring that up ahead of the committee right and and number one the committee can discuss that concern that you have and then we could also make sure that it's discussed in public session prior to any kind of voting or anything like that so you bring that to the to the chair of that committee that's how that would work what are your thoughts on it I I have my own mindset on the why behind it I'm just curious on I I can appreciate the uh idea of getting experience in in each committee so I'm on board for that um you know I don't think we need to go through the hassle of changing things but um I appreciate it you know and I don't want to overwhelm anybody with too many committees other than so it was really idea based in the past year you've you've brought up some great ideas in terms of even inside the school outside of the school so I was just throwing it out there yeah again even even if you're not serving on that committee right you have new business old business you know the the board's pretty it's an open Forum um so I still inv everybody to to Really you know bring those ideas to the table in public so that everybody who's here and or watching can also hear it thank you any other discussion okay roll call vote please Mrs Herold yes Mr Pico yes Mrs Balano yes Mrs sharpstein yes Mr vardo yes Mr yagna yes motions Carri okay uh let's see here appointments and adoptions can I have a motion please motion second thank you we're going to go through board committee meeting schedule for the 2025 calendar year is listed below uh as is the regular board meeting schedule and then uh the newspapers which I think if you saw there was some reprieve from that because there's been such an issue with getting things publicized for many boards so while we have it and we're lucky uh there is some relief from that they trying to change the laws around that desperately around having it be in printed because there's so many smalltown newspapers that have gone out of business [Music] yes discussion questions around the schedule calendar okay Mrs Harolds yes Mr Pico yes Mrs botado yes Mrs sharpstein Mr vardo yes Mr ynam yes motions carry that brings us to the first public session anybody from the public like to speak okay hearing none we will move on motion for adjournment please motion second Voice vote all in favor I I any NOS extensions okay that is the conclusion of our first meeting and then we roll from this into uh Committee of the whole uh which we only do during the annual reorganization [Music] do we want to move right into it is anybody anybody need a break or anything okay all right we will move right alone go through the whole I was just gonna say I'll do a roll call and then I think we can okay move on from there okay move on from the so Mrs Harold here Mr Pico Mrs botato Mrs sharpstein Mr vardo Mr yag yes I here thank okay so in the interest of time we're going to skip the rereading of the sunshine mission and vision statements because we just read them and we will move on so uh correspondence agenda item one Stan hope reorganization meeting invitation um tonight at 7 yes night at s we race oh uh and then that brings us back to public session again great all right we will move on so up first is uh let's see here the personel curriculum School climate and culture committee okay it over go ahead sure so uh we do have a couple positions uh in vacancies that we're still looking to fill um so I will be requesting at our next meeting uh a continued um approval from uh me to appoint Personnel through the February board meeting uh so that we don't have to wait for a board approval to get somebody started um it's really just for uh par professional staff and substitute staff specifically substitute custodians um that is our greatest need um and I appreciate everybody's trust in me and trust in the process uh I did have an interview today I have a couple more set up for uh later this week so fingers crossed that we can fill fill those positions and and be whole once again um Miss uh Mrs Stephanie diano um has submitted a request for movement on the guide uh she has achieved Chris correct me if I'm wrong I think it's ma plus 30 yes No ba step 30 or ba plus 30 ba plus 30 so she's at ba plus 30 um and then uh we I'm I'm happy to um announce that we will at our next board meeting have a motion to approve Bonnie anglehart as the part-time business office clerical assistant uh this is to replace uh the position that was vacated by Kim Campa who took a full-time position in another District um we uh I would say a fairly extensive interview process we interviewed six people for round one uh Mr Borgo and myself for round two we invited Carissa in for a more comprehensive um interview for two candidates that we liked a lot um both candidates were very very good but very opposite um and and for reasons that you know we we outlined as our our interview committee we felt that Bonnie would be uh the best fit for our school and uh right now um so we're excited to bring her on uh she'll be I don't think we've quite decided but I think she was leaning towards uh just like Kim schedule four four shorter days four sixh hour days uh and we prioritize Monday Wednesday Friday because those are the days that Mr porgo uh is here with us um I'll be asking for retroactive appointment of of Jack copich as a substitute custodian uh for the 2425 school year um reason for retroactive is we didn't realize that we didn't already have him approved he served as a summer custodian we thought that we had him as a substitute uh and and Mr copich our buildings and ground supervisor uh had him and and Joel to do some uh some maintenance work over the the holiday break um most of our custodial staff had taken vacation time which we appreciate during the breaks we'd rather them be out when there's nobody here than when we have kids and we have to clean uh so Frank needed a few things done I think mostly ceiling tile Replacements uh so he brought those two boys in to to get that done um uh you are all aware from our December meeting that uh Kathy yonai submitted uh for uh retirement um and the board has approved it and that is effective June 30th uh she has given us a plethora of time to fill this position um so I just wanted to let all of you know that my intent is to post for the vacancy late winter probably late February I don't want to post too soon considering that the position doesn't open until July first ultimately um and then from there we'll field some resumés and and go through the process a very comprehensive process like we always do um but you know knowing that it's now out there I'm sure that there may be people interested uh and and possibly talking about the position um if you hear of anybody that is please assure them that it'll be posted but probably not for another month and a half to two months um this year's calendar committee um typically I invite a board member and uh a couple members of the teaching Association one of our power professionals uh and myself and Miss dialo serve on the committee um and we review the upcoming calendar uh school calendar and what we started doing two or three years ago which which I personally like a lot is drafting a calendar for two years out and the reason for that is so that parents looking to plan vacations um you know will know when school starts uh what days we have vacation what days were in session early dismissals Etc um I know Mr yagnam served on the committee last year uh I wanted to put it out there to see if there was any anybody that had uh special interest in serving on the committee this year else I can have a second person if anybody feels compelled I owe one so I don't mind doing it again if you'd like a second person your it's your call yeah okay I'll I'll invite both of you though get a a meeting scheduled hopefully within the next 2 to 3 weeks appreciate there's again there's no rush because the board's already approved a tentative 2526 calendar um but we'll review that see if there's any changes that we want to make and then we'll construct the sounds crazy 26 27 calendar thank you and then the last item I have for for school climate and culture that's not on the agenda is at the regular January meeting uh I plan to have a motion for the board to approve um a contract with uh Ruckers for the New Jersey school climate Improvement platform and Survey uh Mr shy mentioned that earlier one of our district goals is to conduct a school climate survey um and to use that data to to then um help us review several things one of which being our code of conduct our student handbook our Hib policy um so my My Hope Is that we can begin this process get surveys out in the winter time put together a panel a committee to revieww the data um surveys will go out to students in grades 3 through eight uh staff and parents uh and there's there's different um different domains that I guess uh each of those those groups are surveyed on I'll have uh much more detail for you once we approve this and um I have to sign off that the district is in agreement uh and then I'd likely either myself or have somebody come in to do a brief presentation just to let you know what it's uh what what it's all about any questions on Personnel climate culture all right I'm going to then Dive Right into business uh our next our next agendas are pretty short since we did just meet uh late December um we had a midyear budget review meeting with the county office Mr Borgo and I attended uh it was brief they were the same questions that they ask every year we pretty much give them the same you know response the one question that that always asked of us is why we have uh such a high number of Support Services uh that we provide to our students and the simple answer to that is we have eight kids who don't live in in District they're special needs kids who come to us for our specialized programs which in itself increases the number of of um programs and services that we provide to our students um additionally we really don't send too many kids out to private schools we keep them here um so therefore that's that's obviously going to an increase um but for for the most part the county office was very complimentary uh of our our financial status um our prior our ability to prioritize students in student programming um and uh I think we are in good shape uh to moving forward to close out this year um and also that you will be getting emails uh to your school email address um which will ask you to complete the ethics disclosure form and statements uh for the school year questions on business facilities all right policy this is short and simple we got a nice thick policy alert that was sent to us a few weeks ago uh I thought it would be best to review it with the new policy committee um so I'm going to be diving into that in the next week or so um for our February policy committee I'll get that out to everybody on policy uh so that you can review um the notes that is you know that's the one thing for those of you who are on policy now uh you probably have the fewest number of meetings but when you do meet it's it's probably the most timec consuming because there is a lot to go through um so anybody that has questions obviously let me know but I'm going to do the best that I can to get that out as early as possible so that you can review that um budget calendar uh is attached here for 2526 uh we just recently had the the state's calendar released which allowed us to put this together if you we we pretty much went through it it's very similar you know as it is every year but if anybody has questions just let us know and if I can turn my page that's all I have all right uh anybody have new business so so very quickly I'll mention I was on a County Association leadership meeting for about an hour last night um and the the two main top topics of conversation both revolved around Hib and around cell phone use um and the legislature is pushing for a cell phone use policy we don't know what it's going to look like yet or if it will simply mandate that schools have a policy which I believe we probably have a policy I don't know what it says we'll probably need to review it if the legislation passes um but what we learned on the association leadership meeting last night was there is everything from complete and total bands where kids phones are locked up and you know uh cellular proof pouches for the day to you know schools that have them integrated into the daily learning so the complete spectrum of differences depending on the school in the school system um but I expect that to be a pretty hefty topic of conversation around school boards in general for the year so just something to keep an eye out uh and it is with the legislature as well and it's being brought up because of all of the HIV instances that revolve around the use of cell phones in schools so about an hour conversation on that you mean they had TOS before cell phones wow so just food for thought on that any other new business okay moving to Old business I had a question about the pre pre program um will we have an idea of what funding is going to look like for next year um within this school calendar year definitely within the school calendar year we have to um you know we have to start and we've actually already started the pre-enrollment process um I just unfortunately can't give um confirmed information uh to parents because we don't know we uh the application that I put in for this year um I actually had had questioned because it was so much so many more seats than what we currently have uh I explained to the the preschool people at the state that not only do we have a a significant increase in special ed population at preschool um without even advertising last year we had a waiting list right so uh I put in our application last year for uh I believe it was 25 um general education students have with us having five special education students I again I believe because of an error at the state we were only approved for 10 uh we rolled over funds from the 2324 school year and then still opened up that second class to allow for additional kids um for next year I've applied to have 20 general education students here in uh Valley Road uh with room for 10 special education students and 30 students in for two classrooms at First Impressions preschool uh which is the private program which would give us 50 seats for general education kids which I think are are way more than we could probably uh fill at least for next year um the the question if all approved and once we start the registration process that next question is going to be identifying which students will be attending Valley Road which students will be attending you know the private different the wind um there will be pros and cons to both right um I could tell you right now I've had several parents in the preschool program ask about before and after care where our before and after care provider does not have licenses to service preschool age students however if that's needed and uh they're enrolled in the program they can go to First Impressions who does provide before and after care uh programming um so those are all things that I'm hoping to have ironed out late winter so that we can start advertising and really pushing um but we're at the mercy of the State uh they don't operate as quickly as we do um but if you know of anybody who has age three or four children uh that may be interested uh please let them know that we have a program have them Reach Out for information and um we're hoping to get as many kids as we can in I don't anticipate a weit list or a lottery or anything thank you good news and we have to get here anyway we have five years to get to our universe anyway so yes we're being aggressive and trying to get there sooner yep and then the one thing I'll share under old business um regarding the grant for the feasibility study under regionalization the Grant application is still on hold um we are waiting to see uh a presentation again from Rowan University which is actually scheduled for tomorrow night on how they would handle the process as well as Keen University so uh for those of you that are new and those who might remember if we use an Institute of Higher Learning we don't have to go out for RFP to go out for RFP for the feasibility study the boards would have to pay if you use an Institute of Higher Learning there's no cost lost so right now the Rowan Institute for policy is the only Institute of Higher Learning actively doing the studies Kean did one last year we reached out to Keen four times now they've yet to respond but we're still trying to get them to come in um they did they did respond once and say that they were interested but they haven't committed to anything yet um so we are trying to get in a second group of people to come in and talk us through the process and what they would do if it's any different than what the Roman Center for policy would do um and that presentation is tomorrow night with the existing Grant committee that was established however there are some changes to that Grant committee now because for all of our boards we have different members in the seats previously those committees were um the the the CSA the um uh board um losing my words here business administrator the business administrator uh the president and the vice president um who's were the people who we're handling the Grant application itself if once the application is approved then we would establish a different committee which would be called the steering committee which would likely involve other members of the boards members of the community uh for all of the communities that were involved to be sure that we establish what we want studied collectively and that everybody's kind of moving in the same direction um so right now like I said the the committee make up for tomorrow night will change um obviously Jen that means if you would like to come tomorrow night and by the way this date for tomorrow which just set up about 4 days ago so um you know this is all kind of moving not not quickly but the date we got was this we kind of said to Rowan you give us a date and we'll get the people there if we can so what time tomorrow six o'clock six o'clock yeah six o'clock on the 8th at lenp Valley high school so okay and that will be Rowan coming in to talk us through it again they're the same people who came in last year to talk us through it so for some people it'll be the second time we're seeing it for new folks it'll be the first time they're seeing it questions on that n okay that brings us to public session number two okay moving on that would bring us a motion to adjourn so moves uh Voice vote all in favor I I any nose extensions all right we are done